Higginson: Military History of African Americans in the American Civil War

Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War

From Wikipedia [edited] illustrations added

Sgt. Samuel Smith (3rd United States Colored Cavalry Regiment) with wife and daughters, c. 1863–65

African Americans, including former slaves, served in the American Civil War. The 186,097 black men who joined the Union Army included 7,122 officers and 178,975 enlisted soldiers.[1] Approximately 20,000 black sailors served in the Union Navy and formed a large percentage of many ships' crews.[2] Later in the war, many regiments were recruited and organized as the United States Colored Troops, which reinforced the Northern forces substantially during the conflict's last two years. Both Northern Free Negro and Southern runaway slaves joined the fight. Throughout the course of the war, black soldiers served in forty major battles and hundreds of more minor skirmishes; sixteen African Americans received the Medal of Honor.[2]

Sgt. Milton Holland Medal of Honor

Union

Our Presidents, Governors, Generals and Secretaries are calling, with almost frantic vehemence, for men.-"Men! men! send us men!" they scream, or the cause of the Union is gone...and yet these very officers, representing the people and the Government, steadily, and persistently refuse to receive the very class of men which have a deeper interest in the defeat and humiliation of the rebels than all others.

-Frederick Douglass [3]

Unidentified African-American Union soldier

Proposals to raise African American regiments in the Union's war efforts were at first met with trepidation by officials within the Union command structure, President Abraham Lincoln included. Concerns over the response of the border states (of which one, Maryland, surrounded in part the capital of Washington D.C.), the response of white soldiers and officers, as well as the effectiveness of a fighting force composed of black men were raised.[4]: 165–167 [5] Despite official reluctance from above, the number of white volunteers dropped throughout the war, and black soldiers were needed, whether the population liked it or not.[6] However, African Americans had been volunteering since the first days of war, though they were turned down.[7]

On July 17, 1862, the U.S. Congress passed two statutes allowing for the enlistment of "colored" troops (African Americans)[8] but official enrollment occurred only after the effective date of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. However, state and local militia units had already begun enlisting black men, including the "Black Brigade of Cincinnati", raised in September 1862 to help provide manpower to thwart a feared Confederate raid on Cincinnati from Kentucky, as well as black infantry units raised in Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, and South Carolina.[9] In May 1863, Congress established the Bureau of Colored Troops in an effort to organize black people's efforts in the war.[10]

African Americans served as medical officers after 1863, beginning with Baltimore surgeon Alexander Augusta. Augusta was a senior surgeon, with white assistant surgeons under his command at Fort Stanton, MD. [11]

Company I of the 36th Colored Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, (USCT) Infantry.

In actual numbers, African-American soldiers eventually constituted 10% of the entire Union Army (United States Army). Losses among African Americans were high: In the last year and a half and from all reported casualties, approximately 20% of all African Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives during the Civil War.[1]: 16 Notably, their mortality rate was significantly higher than that of white soldiers:

[We] find, according to the revised official data, that of the slightly over two millions troops in the United States Volunteers, over 316,000 died (from all causes), or 15.2%. Of the 67,000 Regular Army (white) troops, 8.6%, or not quite 6,000, died. Of the approximately 180,000 United States Colored Troops, however, over 36,000 died, or 20.5%. In other words, the mortality "rate" amongst the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War was 35% greater than that among other troops, notwithstanding the fact that the former were not enrolled until some eighteen months after the fighting began.

— Herbert Aptheker [1]: 16

Teamsters

Non-combatant labor duty

Escaped slaves who sought refuge in Union Army camps were called contrabands. A number of officers in the field experimented, with varying degrees of success, in using contrabands for manual work in Union Army camps. Eventually they composed black regiments of soldiers. These officers included General David Hunter, General James H. Lane, and General Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts.[4]: 165–167

Contraband at Fortress Monroe November 1861

In early 1861, General Butler was the first known Union commander to use black contrabands, in a non-combatant role, to do the physical labor duties, after he refused to return escaped slaves, at Fort Monroe, Virginia, who came to him for asylum from their masters, who sought to capture and reenslave them. In September 1862, free African-American men were conscripted and impressed into forced labor for constructing defensive fortifications, by the police force of the city of Cincinnati, Ohio; however, they were soon released from their forced labor and a call for African-American volunteers was sent out. Some 700 of them volunteered, and they came to be known as the Black Brigade of Cincinnati. Because of the harsh working conditions and the extreme brutality of their Cincinnati police guards, the Union Army, under General Lew Wallace, stepped in to restore order and ensure that the black conscripts received the fair treatment due to soldiers, including the equal pay of privates.

Contrabands were later settled in a number of colonies, such as at the Grand Contraband Camp, Virginia, and in the Port Royal Experiment.

Union Army nurse Susie King Taylor

Blacks also participated in activities further behind the lines that helped keep an army functioning, such as at hospitals and the like. Approximately 10 percent of the Union's female relief workforce was of African descent: free blacks of diverse education and class background who earned wages or worked without pay in the larger cause of freedom, and runaway slaves who sought sanctuary in military camps and hospitals.[12]

U.S. Colored troops freeing slaves in North Carolina

Early battles in 1862 and 1863

A lithograph of the storming of Fort Wagner.

In general, white soldiers and officers believed that black men lacked the ability to fight and fight well. In October 1862, African-American soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, in one of the first engagements involving black troops, silenced their critics by repulsing attacking Confederate guerrillas at the Skirmish at Island Mound, Missouri, in the Western Theatre. By August 1863, fourteen more Negro State Regiments were in the field and ready for service. Union General Benjamin Butler wrote:

Better soldiers never shouldered a musket. I observed a very remarkable trait about them. They learned to handle arms and to march more easily than intelligent white men. My drillmaster could teach a regiment of Negroes that much of the art of war sooner than he could have taught the same number of students from Harvard or Yale.[13]

At the Battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana, May 27, 1863, the African-American soldiers bravely advanced over open ground in the face of deadly artillery fire. Although the attack failed, the black soldiers proved their capability to withstand the heat of battle, with General Nathaniel P. Banks recording in his official report: "Whatever doubt may have existed heretofore as to the efficiency of organizations of this character, the history of this day's proves...in this class of troops effective supporters and defenders."[14] Noted for his bravery was Union Captain Andre Cailloux, who fell early in the battle.[15] This was the first battle involving a formal Federal African-American unit.[16]

Battle of Milliken's Bend

On June 7, 1863, a garrison consisting mostly of black troops assigned to guard a supply depot during the Vicksburg Campaign found themselves under attack by a larger Confederate force. Recently recruited, minimally trained, and poorly armed, the black soldiers still managed to successfully repulse the attack in the ensuing Battle of Milliken's Bend with the help of federal gunboats from the Tennessee river, despite suffering nearly three times as many casualties as the rebels.[17] At one point in the battle, Confederate General Henry McCulloch noted

The line was formed under a heavy fire from the enemy, and the troops charged the breastworks, carrying it instantly, killing and wounding many of the enemy by their deadly fire, as well as the bayonet. This charge was resisted by the negro portion of the enemy's force with considerable obstinacy, while the white or true Yankee portion ran like whipped curs almost as soon as the charge was ordered.[18]

Fort Wagner, Fort Pillow, and beyond

[The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts] made Fort Wagner such a name to the colored race as Bunker Hill has been for ninety years to the white Yankees.

-The New York Tribune, September 8, 1865[19]

This recruitment poster was issued under a July 1863 presidential order with the promise of freedom, protection and pay.

The most widely-known battle fought by African Americans was the assault on Fort Wagner, off the Charleston coast, South Carolina, by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry on July 18, 1863. The 54th volunteered to lead the assault on the strongly fortified Confederate positions of the earthen/sand embankments (very resistant to artillery fire) on the coastal beach. The soldiers of the 54th scaled the fort's parapet, and were only driven back after brutal hand-to-hand combat. Despite the defeat, the unit was hailed for its valor, which spurred further African-American recruitment, giving the Union a numerical military advantage from a large segment of the population the Confederacy did not attempt to exploit until too late in the closing days of the War. Unfortunately for any African-American soldiers captured during these battles, imprisonment could be even worse than death. Black prisoners were not treated the same as white prisoners. They received no medical attention, harsh punishments, and would not be used in a prisoner exchange because the Confederate states only saw them as escaped slaves fighting against their masters.[20]

After the battle, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton praised the recent performances of black troops in a letter to Abraham Lincoln, stating "Many persons believed, or pretended to believe, and confidentially asserted, that freed slaves would not make good soldiers; they would lack courage, and could not be subjected to military discipline. Facts have shown how groundless were these apprehensions. The slave has proved his manhood, and his capacity as an infantry soldier, at Milliken's Bend, at the assault upon Port Hudson, and the storming of Fort Wagner."[18]

African-American soldiers participated in every major campaign of the war's last year, 1864–1865, except for Sherman's Atlanta Campaign in Georgia, and the following "March to the Sea" to Savannah, by Christmas 1864. The year 1864 was especially eventful for African-American troops. On April 12, 1864, at the Battle of Fort Pillow, in Tennessee, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest led his 2,500 men against the Union-held fortification, occupied by 292 black and 285 white soldiers.

After driving in the Union pickets and giving the garrison an opportunity to surrender, Forrest's men swarmed into the Fort with little difficulty and drove the Federals down the river's bluff into a deadly crossfire. Casualties were high and only sixty-two of the U.S. Colored Troops survived the fight. Accounts from both Union and Confederate witnesses suggest a massacre.[21] Many believed that the massacre was ordered by Forrest. The battle cry for some black soldiers became "Remember Fort Pillow!"

Six weeks later, Black troops won a notable victory in their first battle of the Overland Campaign in Virginia at the Battle of Wilson's Wharf, successfully defending Fort Pocahontas. Before the battle, Confederate General Fitzhugh Lee sent a surrender demand to the garrison in the fort, warning them if they did not surrender, he would not be "answerable for the consequences." Interpreting this to be a reference to the massacre at Fort Pillow, Union commanding officer Edward A. Wild defiantly refused, responding with a message stating "Present my compliments to General Fitz Lee and tell him to go to hell.” In the ensuing battle, the garrison force repulsed the assault, inflicting 200 casualties with a loss of just 6 killed and 40 wounded.

The Battle of Chaffin's Farm, Virginia, became one of the most heroic engagements involving black troops. On September 29, 1864, the African-American division of the Eighteenth Corps, after being pinned down by Confederate artillery fire for about 30 minutes, charged the earthworks and rushed up the slopes of the heights. During the hour-long engagement the division suffered tremendous casualties. Of the twenty-five African Americans who were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Civil War, fourteen received the honor as a result of their actions at Chaffin's Farm.

Discrimination in pay and assignments

African-American Federal troops participating in the Inauguration Day parade at Lincoln's second Inauguration, March 1865.[22]

Although black soldiers proved themselves as reputable soldiers, discrimination in pay and other areas remained widespread. According to the Militia Act of 1862, soldiers of African descent were to receive $10.00 per month, with an optional deduction for clothing at $3.00. In contrast, white privates received $12.00 per month plus a clothing allowance of $3.50.[23] Many regiments struggled for equal pay, some refusing any money and pay until June 15, 1864, when the Federal Congress granted equal pay for all soldiers.[24][25]

Besides discrimination in pay, colored units were often disproportionately assigned laborer work, rather than combat assignments.[4]: 198 General Daniel Ullman, commander of the Corps d' Afrique, remarked "I fear that many high officials outside of Washington have no other intention than that these men shall be used as diggers and drudges."[26]

African-American contributions to Union war intelligence

Black people, both enslaved and free, were involved in assisting the Union in matters of intelligence, and their contributions were labeled Black Dispatches.[27] One of these spies was Mary Bowser.

Harriet Tubman was also a spy, a nurse, and a cook whose efforts were key to Union victories and survival. Tubman is most widely recognized for her contributions to freeing slaves via the Underground Railroad. However, her contributions to the Union Army were equally important. She used her knowledge of the country's terrain to gain important intelligence for the Union Army. She became the first woman to lead U.S. soldiers into combat when, under the order of Colonel James Montgomery, she took a contingent of soldiers in South Carolina behind enemy lines, destroying plantations and freeing 750 slaves in the process.[28]

Black people routinely assisted Union armies advancing through Confederate territory as scouts, guides, and spies. Confederate General Robert Lee said "The chief source of information to the enemy is through our negroes."[29] In a letter to Confederate high command, Confederate general Patrick Cleburne complained "All along the lines slavery is comparatively valueless to us for labor, but of great and increasing worth to the enemy for information. It is an omnipresent spy system, pointing out our valuable men to the enemy, revealing our positions, purposes, and resources, and yet acting so safely and secretly that there is no means to guard against it. Even in the heart of our country, where our hold upon this secret espionage is firmest, it waits but the opening fire of the enemy's battle line to wake it, like a torpid serpent, into venomous activity."[30]

USS Hunchback

Union Navy (U.S. Navy)

Unlike the army, the U.S. Navy had never prohibited black men from serving, though regulations in place since 1840 had required them to be limited to not more than 5% of all enlisted sailors. Thus at the start of the war, the Union Navy differed from the Army in that it allowed black men to enlist and was racially integrated.[31] The Union Navy's official position at the beginning of the war was ambivalence toward the use of either Northern free black people or runaway slaves. The constant stream, however, of escaped slaves seeking refuge aboard Union ships forced the Navy to formulate a policy towards them.[32] Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells in a terse order, pointed out the following;

It is not the policy of this Government to invite or encourage this kind of desertion and yet, under the circumstances, no other course...could be adopted without violating every principle of humanity. To return them would be impolitic as well as cruel...you will do well to employ them.

— Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy July 22, 1861 [33]

In time, the Union Navy would see almost 16% of its ranks supplied by African Americans, performing in a wide range of enlisted roles.[34] In contrast to the Army, the Navy from the outset not only paid equal wages to white and black sailors, but offered considerably more for even entry-level enlisted positions.[35] Food rations and medical care were also improved over the Army, with the Navy benefiting from a regular stream of supplies from Union-held ports.[36]

Becoming a commissioned officer was out of reach for nearly all black sailors. With rare exceptions, the rank of petty officer was the highest available to black sailors, and in practice, only to free blacks (who often were the only ones with naval careers sufficiently long to earn the rank).[37] Robert Smalls, an escaped slave who freed himself, his crew, and their families by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, on May 13, 1862, and sailing it from Confederate-controlled waters of the harbor to the U.S. blockade that surrounded it, was given the rank of captain of the steamer "Planter" in December 1864.[38]

Confederacy

Confederate Army

Blacks did not serve in the Confederate Army as combat troops, per law.[2][40][41] Blacks were actively forbidden by the Confederacy for the majority of its existence.[2] Enslaved blacks were sometimes used for camp labor, however. Other times, when a son or sons in a slaveholding family enlisted, he would take along a family slave to work as a personal servant. Such slaves would perform non-combat duties such as carrying and loading supplies, but they were not soldiers. Still, even these civilian usages were comparatively infrequent. In areas where the Union Army approached, a wave of slave escapes would inevitably follow; Southern blacks would inevitably offer themselves as scouts who knew the territory to the Federals. Confederate armies were rationally nervous about having too many blacks marching with them, as their patchy loyalty to the Confederacy meant that the risk of one turning runaway and informing the Federals as to the rebel army's size and position was substantial. Opposition to arming blacks was even stauncher. Many in the South feared slave revolts already, and arming blacks would make the threat of mistreated slaves overthrowing their masters even greater.[2]

The closest the Confederacy came to seriously attempting to equip colored soldiers in the army proper came in the last few weeks of the war. The Confederate Congress narrowly passed a bill allowing slaves to join the army. The bill did not offer or guarantee an end to their servitude as an incentive to enlist, and only allowed slaves to enlist with the consent of their masters. Even this weak bill, supported by Robert E. Lee, passed only narrowly, by a 9–8 vote in the Senate. President Jefferson Davis signed the law on March 13, 1865, but went beyond the terms in the bill by issuing an order on March 23 to offer freedom to slaves so recruited. The emancipation offered, however, was reliant upon a master's consent; "no slave will be accepted as a recruit unless with his own consent and with the approbation of his master by a written instrument conferring, as far as he may, the rights of a freedman."[42]

Non-military use

The impressment of slaves and conscription of freedmen into direct military labor initially came on the impetus of state legislatures, and by 1864, six states had regulated impressment (Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, in order of authorization).[54][55][56] Slave labor was used in a wide variety of support roles, from infrastructure and mining, to teamster and medical roles such as hospital attendants and nurses.[45]: 62–63 Bruce Levine wrote that "Nearly 40% of the Confederacy's population were unfree... the work required to sustain the same society during war naturally fell disproportionately on black shoulders as well. By drawing so many white men into the army, indeed, the war multiplied the importance of the black work force."[45]: 62

In January 1864, General Patrick Cleburne in the Army of Tennessee proposed using slaves as soldiers in the national army to buttress falling troop numbers.

Cleburne's proposal received a hostile reception. It was sent to Confederate President Jefferson Davis who refused to consider Cleburne's proposal and ordered the report kept private as discussion of it could only produce "discouragement, distraction, and dissension."

The growing setbacks for the Confederacy in late 1864 caused a number of prominent officials to reconsider their earlier stance, however. President Lincoln's re-election in November 1864 seemed to seal the best political chance for victory the South had. President Davis, Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, and General Robert E. Lee now were willing to consider modified versions of Cleburne's original proposal. On November 7, 1864, in his annual address to Congress, Davis hinted at arming slaves.[63]

On January 11, 1865, General Robert E. Lee wrote the Confederate Congress urging them to arm and enlist black slaves in exchange for their freedom.[68] On March 13, the Confederate Congress passed legislation to raise and enlist companies of black soldiers by one vote. The law allowed slaves to enlist, but only with the consent of their slave masters. The legislation was then promulgated into military policy by Davis in General Order No. 14 on March 23, 1865.[42] The war ended less than six weeks later, and there is no record of any black unit being accepted into the Confederate army or seeing combat.[69]

United States Colored Troops as prisoners of war

Monument to U.S. Colored Troops at Vicksburg National Military Park

Prisoner exchanges between the Union and Confederacy were suspended when the Confederacy refused to return black soldiers captured in uniform. In October 1862, the Confederate Congress issued a resolution declaring that all Negroes, free and enslaved, should be delivered to their respective states "to be dealt with according to the present and future laws of such State or States".[77] In a letter to General Beauregard on this issue, Secretary Seddon pointed out that "Slaves in flagrant rebellion are subject to death by the laws of every slave-holding State" but that "to guard, however, against possible abuse...the order of execution should be reposed in the general commanding the special locality of the capture."[78]

However, Seddon, concerned about the "embarrassments attending this question",[79] urged that former slaves be sent back to their owners. As for freemen, they would be handed over to Confederates for confinement and put to hard labor.[80] Black troops were actually less likely to be taken prisoner than whites, as in many cases, such as the Battle of Fort Pillow, Confederate troops murdered them on the battlefield; if taken prisoner, black troops and their white officers faced far worse treatment than other prisoners.

In the last few months of the war, the Confederate government agreed to the exchange of all prisoners, white and black, and several thousand troops were exchanged until the surrender of the Confederacy ended all hostilities.[81]

References

Notes

1.     Aptheker, Herbert (January 1947). "Negro Casualties in the Civil War". The Journal of Negro History. 32 (1): 12.
2.     Bonekemper III, Edward (2015). The Myth of the Lost Cause. New York: Regnery Publishing. pp. 78–92.
3.     "Douglass Monthly" V (August 1863) 852
4.     James McPherson, "The Negro's Civil War".
5.     Edward G. Longacre, "Black Troops in the Army of the James", 1863–65 "Military Affairs", Vol. 45, No. 1 (February 1981), p.3
6.     "Teaching With Documents: The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War". National Archives. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
7.     Trudeau, Noah A., Like Men of War, Little, Brown and Company, p.8-9.
8.     U.S. Statutes at Large XII, p. 589-92
9.     "Black Civil War Soldiers - Facts, Death Toll & Enlistment". 22 November 2022.
10. "Black Soldiers in the Civil War". Archives.gov. 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
11. Butts, Heather (2005). "Alexander Thomas Augusta Physician, Teacher and Human Rights Activist". J Natl Med Assoc. 97 (1): 106–9.
12. Jane E. Schultz, "Seldom Thanked, Never Praised, and Scarcely Recognized: Gender and Racism in Civil War Hospitals", Civil War History, Vol. xlviii No. 3 p. 221
13. "The Color of Bravery". American Battlefield Trust.
14. Official Record of the War of the Rebellion Series I, Vol. XXVI, Pt. 1, p. 45
15. Rogers, Octavia V., "The House of Bondage", Oxford University Press, pg.131.
16. Trudeau, Noah A., Like Men of War, Little, Brown and Company, p.37.
17. "Milliken's Bend". American Battlefield Trust.
18. "Battle of Milliken's Bend, June 7, 1863 - Vicksburg National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service)".
19. "New York Tribune,", September 8, 1865
20. Ward, Thomas J. Jr. (August 27, 2013). "The Plight of the Black P.O.W." The New York Times.
21. Trudeau, Noah A., Like Men of War, Little, Brown and Company, p.166-168.
22. "Uncovered Photos Offer View of Lincoln Ceremony". NPR.
23. Eric Foner. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 497
24. U.S. Statutes at Large, XIII, 129-131
25. "Black Soldiers in the Civil War". Archives.gov. 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
26. Official Record Ser. III Vol. III p. 1126

27. "Black Dispatches: Black American Contributions to Union Intelligence During the Civil War". cia.gov. Archived from the original on June 12, 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2010.

28. Chism, Kahlil (March 2005). "Harriet Tubman: Spy, Veteran, and Widow". OAH Magazine of History. 19 (1): 47–51. doi:10.1093/maghis/19.2.47.

29. "African Americans In The Civil War". HistoryNet.

30. "Patrick Cleburne's Proposal to Arm Slaves". American Battlefield Trust. Retrieved 2021-05-30.

31. "African Americans in the U.S. Navy During the Civil War".

32. Steven J. Ramold. Slaves, Sailors, Citizens pp. 3–4

33. Official Record of the Confederate and Union Navies, Ser. I vol. VI, Washington, 1897, pp. 8–10. See http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/ofre.html

34. Ramold, Slaves, Sailors, Citizens, p. 55

35. Ramold, Slaves, Sailors, Citizens, pp. 82–84.

36. Ramold, Slaves, Sailors, Citizens, pp. 92–99.

37. Ramold, Slaves, Sailors, Citizens, pp. 76–77.

38. "Robert Smalls, from Escaped Slave to House of Representatives – African American History Blog – The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross". PBS. 13 January 2013.

39. Editors, Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown. Lucinda H. Mackethan. "Reading Marlboro Jones: A Georgia Slave in Civil War Virginia", Virginia's Civil War. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2005.

40. Smith, Sam (10 February 2015). "Black Confederates". American Battlefield Trust. Civil War Trust.

41. Martinez, Jaime Amanda. "Black Confederates". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities Council.

42. Official Record, Series IV, Vol. III, p. 1161-1162.

43. Davis, William C., Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour, p. 599.

44. Statement of the Auditor of the Numbers of Slaves Fit for Service, March 25, 1865, William Smith Executive Papers, Virginia Governor's Office, RG 3, State Records Collection, LV.

45. Bruce Levine. Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War.

46. James M. McPherson, ed., The Most Fearful Ordeal: Original Coverage of the Civil War by Writers and Reporters of the New York Times, p. 319.[1]

47. Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. p. 518

48. "Jefferson Shields profile in Richmond paper, Nov. 3, 1901". The Daily Times. 1901-11-03. p. 18.

49. Levin, Kevin (2019). Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth. UNC Press. pp. 89–90.

50. Levin, Kevin M. (2019). Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth. University of North Carolina Press.

51. Levin, Kevin (August 8, 2015). "The Myth of the Black Confederate Soldier". The Daily Beast.

52. Marshall, Josh (January 2, 2018). "In Search of the Black Confederate Unicorn". Talking Points Memo. TPM Media LLC.

53. Levine, Bruce. "Black Confederates", North & South 10, no. 2. p. 40–45.

54. Bergeron, Arthur W., Jr. Louisianans in the Civil War, "Louisiana's Free Men of Color in Gray", University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 109.

55. Bernard H. Nelson, "Confederate Slave Impressment Legislation, 1861–1865", The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 31, No. 4. (October, 1946), pp. 393–394.

56. Nelson, "Confederate Slave Impressment Legislation," p. 398.

57. Ivan Musicant, "Divided Waters: The Naval History of the Civil War". (1995) p. 74. "Free blacks could enlist with the approval of the local squadron commander, or the Navy Department, and slaves were permitted to serve with their master's consent. It was stipulated that no draft of seamen to a newly commissioned vessel could number more than 5 per cent blacks. Though figures are lacking, a fair number of blacks served as coal heavers, officers' stewards, or at the top end, as highly skilled tidewater pilots."

58. "Tennessee State Library & Archives – Tennessee Secretary of State

59. "Tennessee Colored Pension Applications for CSA Service".

60. Official Record, Series I, Vol. LII, Part 2, pp. 586–592.

61. Official Record, Series I, Vol. LII, Pt. 2, p. 598.

62. Official Record, Series IV, Vol III, p. 1009.

63. Fellman, Michael; Gordon, Lesley Jill; Sutherland, Daniel E. (2008). This Terrible War: The Civil War and its Aftermath (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson Longman.

64. Thomas Robson Hay. "The South and the Arming of the Slaves", The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 6, No. 1. (June, 1919), p. 34.

65. Richmond Enquirer, October 6, 1864

66. Charleston Courier, January 24, 1865

67. ""It Is a Surrender Of the Entire Slavery Question"". civil war memory. 2014-11-13.

68. Official Record. Series IV, Vol. III, p. 1012-1013.

69. "Black Confederates: Truth and Legend". 10 February 2015.

70. Official copy of the militia law of Louisiana, adopted by the state legislature, Jan. 23, 1862

71. Hollandsworth, James G., The Louisiana Native Guards, LSU Press, 1996, p.10.

72. Bergeron, Arhur W., Jr. Louisianans in the Civil War, "Louisiana's Free Men of Color in Gray", University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 107-109.

73. Daily Delta, August 7, 1862; Grenada (Miss.) Appeal, August 7, 1862

74. Bergeron, Arhur W., Jr. Louisianans in the Civil War, "Louisiana's Free Men of Color in Gray", University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 108.

75. Dr. Wilbert L. Jenkins: Climbing Up to Glory: A Short History of African Americans During the Civil War and Reconstruction (SR Books, 2002), p. 72.

76. Barbara Tomblin, Life in Jefferson Davis' Navy (Naval Institute Press, 2019)

77. Statutes at Large of the Confederate State (Richmond 1863), 167–168.

78. Official Record, Series II, Vol. VIII, p. 954.

79. Official Record, Series II, Vol. VI, pp. 703–704.

80. "Treatment of Colored Union Troops by Confederates, 1861–1865", The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 20, No. 3. (July, 1935), pp. 278–279.

81. Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 457.

82. "Delany, Martin R. (1812–1885)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 2012-05-27.

Bibliography

·         Kevin M. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
·         Jaime Amanda Martinez, Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2013.
·         Bruce Levine, Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves During the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. review by David W. Blight.

Further reading

·         William A. Dobak, Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2013.
·         James G. Mendez, A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War. New York: Fordham University Press, 2019.
·         John David Smith, Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2013. I

United States Colored Troops

United States Colored Troops (USCT) were Union Army regiments during the American Civil War that primarily comprised African Americans, with soldiers from other ethnic groups also serving in USCT units. Established in response to a demand for more units from Union Army commanders, by the end of the war in 1865 USCT regiments, which numbered 175 in total, constituted about one-tenth of the manpower of the army. Approximately 20% of USCT soldiers were killed in action or died of disease and other causes, a rate about 35% higher than that of white Union troops.

Sgt. Milton Howland Medal of Honor recipient

Numerous USCT soldiers fought with distinction, with 16 receiving the Medal of Honor. The USCT regiments were precursors to the Buffalo Soldier units which fought in the American Indian Wars.[1]

The courage displayed by colored troops during the Civil War played an important role in African Americans gaining new rights. As Frederick Douglass said during a 1863 speech:

Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.[2]

Background

The Confiscation Act

Printed broadside, calling all men of color to arms, 1863

Contraband labors Fort Monroe, Virginia

The U.S. Congress passed the Confiscation Act [3] in July 1862. It freed slaves whose owners were in rebellion against the United States. Congress almost immediately passed the Militia Act that empowered the President to use free blacks and former slaves from the rebel states in any capacity in the army. President Abraham Lincoln was concerned with public opinion in the four border states that remained in the Union, as they had numerous slaveholders, as well as with northern Democrats who supported the war but were less supportive of abolition than many northern Republicans. At first, Lincoln opposed early efforts to recruit African-American soldiers, although he accepted the Army using them as paid workers.

In September 1862, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all slaves in rebellious states would be free as of January 1. Recruitment of colored regiments began in full force following the Proclamation in January 1863.[4]

Formation

Main article: Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War

The United States War Department issued General Order Number 143 on May 22, 1863, establishing the Bureau of Colored Troops to facilitate the recruitment of African-American soldiers to fight for the Union Army.[5] Regiments, including infantry, cavalry, engineers, light artillery, and heavy artillery units were recruited from all states of the Union. Approximately 175 regiments comprising more than 178,000 free blacks and freedmen served during the last two years of the war. Their service bolstered the Union war effort at a critical time.

Initially, the USCT were relegated to menial jobs such as that of laborers, teamsters, cooks, and other supports duties. However, even these duties were essential to the war effort.[6] For example, USCT engineers built Fort Pocahontas, a Union supply depot, in Charles City, Virginia.[7] Eventually USCT were sent into combat.

The USCT suffered 2,751 combat casualties during the war, and 68,178 losses from all causes. Disease caused the most fatalities for all troops, both black and white.[8] In the last year-and-a-half and from all reported casualties, approximately 20% of all African Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives.[9] Notably, their mortality rate was significantly higher than white soldiers:

[We] find, according to the revised official data, that of the slightly over two millions troops in the United States Volunteers, over 316,000 died (from all causes), or 15.2%. Of the 67,000 Regular Army (white) troops, 8.6%, or not quite 6,000, died. Of the approximately 180,000 United States Colored Troops, however, over 36,000 died, or 20.5%. In other words, the mortality rate amongst the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War was thirty-five percent greater than that among other troops, notwithstanding the fact that the former were not enrolled until some eighteen months after the fighting began.[9]— Herbert Aptheker

USCT regiments were led by white Union officers, while rank advancement was limited for Black soldiers, who could only rise to the rank of non-commissioned officers. Approximately 110 blacks did become commissioned officers before the end of the war, primarily as surgeons or chaplains.[10] The Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments in Philadelphia opened the Free Military Academy for Applicants for the Command of Colored Troops at the end of 1863.[11] For a time, black soldiers received less pay than their white counterparts, but they and their supporters lobbied and eventually gained equal pay.[12] Notable members of USCT regiments included Martin Robinson Delany and the sons of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The process for white officers aiming to lead USCT was considered more protracted and perhaps rigorous than for ordinary Union officers. This was because it was assumed that leading black soldiers would require a better officer than those leading white troops. At the end of their studies, those men who wished to lead black troops had to pass an examination administered by Brig. Gen. Silas Casey's staff in Washington. After a short period of examinations in mid-1863, only half of the men who had taken the exam passed.[13]

Volunteer regiments

Before the USCT was formed, several volunteer regiments were raised from free black men, including freedmen in the South. In 1863 a former slave, William Henry Singleton, helped recruit 1,000 former slaves in New Bern, North Carolina for the First North Carolina Colored Volunteers. He became a sergeant in the 35th USCT. Freedmen from the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, established in 1863 on the island, also formed part of the Free North Carolina Colored Volunteers (FNCCV) and subsequently the 35th.[14] Nearly all of the volunteer regiments were converted into USCT units.

In 1922 Singleton published his memoir (in a slave narrative) of his journey from slavery to freedom and becoming a Union soldier. Glad to participate in reunions, years later at the age of 95, he marched in a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) event in 1938.

Company I 36th USCT. Fort Lincoln

State volunteers

Four regiments were considered regular units, rather than auxiliaries. Their veteran status allowed them to get federal government jobs after the war, from which African Americans had usually been excluded in earlier years. However, the men received no formal recognition for combat honors and awards until the turn of the 20th century. These units were:

·         5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry
·         54th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment
·         55th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment
·         29th Connecticut (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment
·         30th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment
·         31st Infantry Regiment (Colored)

1st Louisiana Native Guard (Corps d'Afrique)

USCT soldiers at an abandoned farmhouse in Dutch Gap, Virginia, 1864

The 1st Louisiana Native Guard, one of many Louisiana Union Civil War units, was formed in New Orleans after the city was taken and occupied by Union forces. It was formed in part from the Confederacy's former unit of the same name, which had been made up of property-owning free people of color (gens de couleur libres).[15] These men had wanted to prove their bravery and loyalty to the Confederacy like other Southern property owners by joining the Confederate blacks, but the Confederacy did not allow them to serve and confiscated their arms.

For the new unit, the Union also recruited freedmen from the refugee camps. Liberated from nearby plantations, they and their families had no means to earn a living and no place to go. Local commanders, starved for replacements, started equipping volunteer units with cast-off uniforms and obsolete or captured firearms. The men were treated and paid as auxiliaries, performing guard or picket duties to free up white soldiers for maneuver units. In exchange their families were fed, clothed and housed for free at the Army camps; often schools were set up for them and their children.

Despite class differences between free people of color and freedmen, the troops of the new guard served with distinction, including under Captain Andre Cailloux at the Battle of Port Hudson and throughout the South. Its units included:

·         4 Regiments of Louisiana Native Guards (renamed the 1st–4th Corps d'Afrique Infantry, later renamed as the 73rd–76th US Colored Infantry on April 4, 1864).
·         1st and 2nd Brigade Marching Bands, Corps d'Afrique (later made into Nos. 1 and 2 Bands, USCT).
·         1st Regiment of Cavalry (1st Corps d'Afrique Cavalry, later made into the 4th US Colored Cavalry).
·         22 Regiments of Infantry (1st–20th, 22nd, and 26th Corps d'Afrique Infantry, later converted into the 77th–79th, 80th–83rd, 84th–88th, and 89th–93rd US Colored Infantry on April 4, 1864).
·         5 Regiments of Engineers (1st–5th Corps d'Afrique Engineers, later converted into the 95th–99th US Colored Infantry regiments on April 4, 1864) whose work building Bailey's Dam saved the Union navy's Mississippi River Squadron.
·         1 Regiment of Heavy Artillery (later converted into the 10th US Colored (Heavy) Artillery on May 21, 1864).

Right Wing, XVI Corps (1864)

Colored Troops singing "John Brown's Body" as they marched into Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1865. Note the attitude of the local population, and the white officers. Harper’s Weekly

Colored troops served as laborers in the 16th Army Corps' Quartermaster's Department and Pioneer Corps.

·         Detachment, Quartermaster's Department.
·         Pioneer Corps, 1st Division (Mower), 16th Army Corps.

         Pioneer Corps, Cavalry Division (Grierson), 16th Army Corps.

USCT Regiments

Main article: List of United States Colored Troops Civil War Units

·         6 Regiments of Cavalry [1st–6th USC Cavalry]
·         1 Regiment of Light Artillery [2nd USC (Light) Artillery]
·         1 Independent USC (Heavy) Artillery Battery
·         13 Heavy Artillery Regiments [1st and 3rd–14th USC (Heavy) Artillery]
·         1 unassigned Company of Infantry [Company A, US Colored Infantry]
·         1 Independent USC Company of Infantry (Southard's Independent Company, Pennsylvania (Colored) Infantry)
·         1 Independent USC Regiment of Infantry [Powell's Regiment, US Colored Infantry]
·         135 Regiments of Infantry [1st–138th USC Infantry] (The 94th, 105th, and 126th USC Infantry regiments were never fully formed)

Details

· The 2nd USC (Light) Artillery Regiment (2nd USCA) was made up of nine separate batteries grouped into three nominal battalions of three batteries each. The batteries were usually detached.

o    I Battalion: A,B & C Batteries.
o    II Battalion: D, E & F Batteries.
o    III Battalion: G, H & I Batteries.

·         The second raising of the 11th USC Infantry (USCI) was created by converting the 7th USC (Heavy) Artillery into an infantry unit.
         The second raising of the 79th USC Infantry (USCI) was formed from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry.
·         The second raising of the 83rd USC Infantry (USCI) was formed from the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry.
·         The second raising of the 87th USCI was formed from merging the first raisings of the 87th and 96th USCI.
·         The second raising of the 113th USCI was formed by merging the first raisings of the 11th, 112th, and 113th USCI.

Notable actions

Main article: Skirmish at Island Mound

George N. Barnard's photograph of a slave trader's business on Whitehall Street Atlanta, Georgia, 1864. A United States Colored Troop Infantry corporal is sitting by the door.

The first engagement by African-American soldiers against Confederate forces during the Civil War was at the Battle of Island Mound in Bates County, Missouri on October 28–29, 1862. African Americans, mostly escaped slaves, had been recruited into the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers. They accompanied white troops to Missouri to break up Confederate guerrilla activities based out of Hog Island near Butler, Missouri. Although outnumbered, the African-American soldiers fought valiantly, and the Union forces won the engagement.

The conflict was reported by The New York Times and Harper's Weekly.[16][17] In 2012 the state established the Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site to preserve this area; the eight Union men killed were buried near the battleground.[18]

USCT regiments fought in all theaters of the war, but mainly served as garrison troops in rear areas. The most famous USCT action took place at the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg. Regiments of USCT suffered heavy casualties attempting to break through Confederate lines.

Other notable engagements include Fort Wagner, one of their first major tests, and the Battle of Nashville.[19]

Colored Troop soldiers were among the first Union forces to enter Richmond, Virginia, after its fall in April 1865. The 41st USCT regiment was among those present at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. Following the war, USCT regiments served among the occupation troops in former Confederate states.

U.S. Army General Ulysses S. Grant praised the competent performance and bearing of the USCT, saying at Vicksburg that:

Negro troops are easier to preserve discipline among than our white troops ... All that have been tried have fought bravely.

— Ulysses S. Grant, at Vicksburg (July 24, 1863).[20]

Prisoners of war

USCT soldiers suffered extra violence at the hands of Confederate soldiers, who singled them out for mistreatment. They were often the victims of battlefield massacres and atrocities by Confederates, most notably at Fort Pillow in Tennessee, at the Battle of the Crater in Virginia,[21] and at the Battle of Olustee in Florida.

They were often murdered when captured by Confederate soldiers, as the Confederacy announced that former slaves fighting for the Union were traitors and would be immediately executed.[19]

The prisoner exchange protocol broke down over the Confederacy's position on black prisoners-of-war. The Confederacy had passed a law stating that white officers commanding black soldiers and blacks captured in uniform would be tried as rebellious slave insurrectionists in civil courts — a capital offense with automatic sentence of death.[22][23] In practice, USCT soldiers were often murdered by Confederate troops without being taken to court. This law became a stumbling block for prisoner exchange, as the U.S. government in the Lieber Code objected to such discriminatory mistreatment of prisoners of war on basis of ethnicity. The Republican Party's platform during the 1864 presidential election also condemned the Confederacy's mistreatment of black U.S. soldiers.[24] In response to such mistreatment, General Ulysses S. Grant, in a letter to Confederate officer Richard Taylor, urged the Confederates to treat captured black U.S. soldiers humanely and professionally, and not to murder them. He stated the U.S. government's official position, that black U.S. soldiers were sworn military men. The Confederacy had said they were escaped slaves who deserved no better treatment.[25]

Numbers of colored troops by state, North and South

The soldiers are classified by the state where they were enrolled; Northern states often sent agents to enroll formerly enslaved from the South. Many soldiers from Delaware, D.C., Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia were formerly enslaved as well. Most of the troops credited to West Virginia, however, were not actually from that state.[26]

North[27]

Number

South[27]

Number

Connecticut

1,764

Alabama

4,969

Colorado Territory

Arkansas

5,526

Delaware

954

Florida

1,044

District of Columbia

3,269

Georgia

3,486

Illinois

1,811

Louisiana

24,502

Indiana

1,597

Mississippi

17,869

Iowa

440

North Carolina

5,035

Kansas

2,080

South Carolina

5,462

Kentucky

23,703

Tennessee

20,133

Maine

104

Texas

Maryland

8,718

Virginia

5,723

Massachusetts

3,966

Michigan

1,387

Total from the South

93,796

Minnesota

104

Missouri

8,344

At large

733

New Hampshire

125

Not accounted for

5,083

New Jersey

1,185

New York

4,125

Ohio

5,092

Pennsylvania

8,612

Rhode Island

1,837

Vermont

120

West Virginia

196

Wisconsin

155

Total from the North

79,283

Total

178,895

Postbellum

The USCT was disbanded in the fall of 1865. In 1867, the Regular Army was set at ten regiments of cavalry and 45 regiments of infantry. The Army was authorized to raise two regiments of black cavalry (the 9th and 10th (Colored) Cavalry) and four regiments of black infantry (the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st (Colored) Infantry), who were mostly drawn from USCT veterans. The first draft of the bill that the House Committee on Military Affairs sent to the full chamber on March 7, 1866, did not include a provision for regiments of black cavalry; however, this provision was added by Senator Benjamin Wade prior to the bill's passing.[28] In 1869 the Regular Army was kept at ten regiments of cavalry but cut to 25 regiments of Infantry, reducing the black complement to two regiments (the 24th and 25th (Colored) Infantry).

The two black infantry regiments represented 10 percent of the size of all twenty-five infantry regiments. Similarly, the black cavalry units represented 20 percent of the size of all ten cavalry regiments.[28]

From 1870 to 1898 the strength of the US Army totaled 25,000 service members with black soldiers maintaining their 10 percent representation.[28] USCT soldiers fought in the Indian Wars in the American West, where they became known as the Buffalo Soldiers, thus nicknamed by Native Americans who compared their hair to the curly fur of bison.[29]

Awards

Sgt Major Christian Fleetwood. Civil War, Medal of Honor recipient

US Medal of Honor

Sixteen African-American USCT soldiers earned the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award, for service in the war:[30]

· Sergeant William Harvey Carney of the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863. During the advance, Carney was wounded but still went on. When the color-bearer was shot, Carney grabbed the flagstaff and planted it in the parapet, while the rest of his regiment stormed the fortification. When his regiment was forced to retreat, he was wounded two more times while he carried the colors back to Union lines. He did not relinquish it until he handed it to another soldier of the 54th. Carney received his medal 37 years after the battle.

· Fourteen African-American soldiers, including Sergeant Major Christian Fleetwood and Sergeant Alfred B. Hilton (mortally wounded) of the 4th USCT, were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm in September 1864, during the campaign to take Petersburg.

· Corporal Andrew Jackson Smith of the 55th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Honey Hill in November 1864. Smith prevented the regimental colors from falling into enemy hands after the color sergeant was killed. Due to a lack of official records, he was not awarded the medal until 2001.

The Butler Award

Soldiers who fought in the Army of the James were eligible for the Butler Medal, commissioned by that army's commander, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler. When several slaves escaped to Butler's lines in 1861, at Fort Monroe in Virginia, Butler was the first to declare any refugee slaves as contraband, and refused to return them to slaveholders, a standard that slowly became an unofficial policy throughout the Union Army. Their owner, a Confederate colonel, came to Butler under a flag of truce and demanded that they be returned to him under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Butler informed him that since Virginia claimed to have left the Union, the Fugitive Slave Law no longer applied, declaring the slaves to be contraband of war.

Legacy and modern views

The historian Steven Hahn proposes that when slaves organized themselves and worked with the Union Army during the American Civil War, including as some regiments of the USCT, their actions comprised a slave rebellion that dwarfed all other slave revolts.[31] The African American Civil War Memorial Museum helps to preserve pertinent information from the period.[32]

Tributes

·         In 1924, the Grand Army of the Republic unveiled the Colored Soldiers Monument in Frankfort, Kentucky.
·         In September 1996, a national celebration in commemoration of the service of the United States Colored Troops was held.
·         The African American Civil War Memorial (1997), featuring Spirit of Freedom by sculptor Ed Hamilton, was erected at the corner of Vermont Avenue and U Street NW in the capital, Washington, D.C. It is administered by the National Park Service.
·         In 1999 the African American Civil War Museum opened nearby.
·         In July 2011, the African American Civil War Museum celebrated a grand opening of its new facility at 1925 Vermont Avenue Northwest, Washington DC, just across the street from the memorial.[34][35]

Other

Richard Walter Thomas, black scholar of race relations, observed that the relationship between white and black soldiers in the Civil War was an instance of what he calls "the other tradition": "… after sharing the horrors of war with their black comrades in arms, many white officers experienced deep and dramatic transformations in their attitudes toward blacks."[37]

Similar units

·         92nd Infantry Division (United States)
·         93d Infantry Division (United States)
·         366th Infantry Regiment (United States)
·         369th Infantry Regiment (United States)
·         761st Tank Battalion (United States)
·         1st Louisiana Native Guard (CSA)

Notes

1. This U.S. Colored Troops medal was issued by General Butler
2. Capt. Francis Jackson Meriam (pictured), was commander of the 3rd South Carolina Colored Infantry.

References

Citations

1.     "Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War". National Archives. August 15, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
2.     Douglass, Frederick (July 6, 1863). Speech at National Hall, for the Promotion of Colored Enlistments (Speech). Mass meeting held at National Hall, Philadelphia. National Hall, Philadelphia. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
3.     Rodriguez, Junius P. Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, vol. 2, pg 241
4.     Cornish, The Sable Arm, pp. 29–111.
5.     Cornish, The Sable Arm, p. 130.
6.     Henderson, Steward. "The Role of the USCT in the Civil War". www.battlefields.org. American Battlefield Trust.
7.     Rhea, Gordon C. To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee; May 13–25, 1864; Baton Rouge, LA; Louisiana State University Press, 2000.
8.     Cornish, The Sable Arm, p. 288; McPherson, The Negro's Civil War, p. 237
9.     Herbert Aptheker, "Negro Casualties in the Civil War", "The Journal of Negro History", Vol. 32, No. 1. (January, 1947).
10. "National Park Civil War Series: The Civil War's Black Soldiers".
11. Cornish, The Sable Arm, p. 218.
12. McPherson, The Negro's Civil War, Chapter XIV, "The Struggle for Equal Pay," pp. 193–203.
13. Fry, Zachery A. (October 2017). "Philadelphia's Free Military School and the Radicalization of Wartime Officer Education, 1863-64". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 141 (3): 278–279.
14. "The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony"; Carolina Country Magazine, date?, accessed November 10, 2010
15. This group of mixed-race people were descended generally from male native-born Spanish and French colonists (called Criolla or Créole) and African slave women, or free African-American women. After the United States made the Louisiana Purchase (1803), many Americans moved to Louisiana. They ignored the status of the free people of color, grouping them with the mass of blacks, then mostly slaves. (Today the people of color descended from this group are generally referred to as Louisiana Creoles.)
16. "Affairs In The West.; A Negro Regiment in Action – The Battle of Island Mounds – Desperate Bravery of the Negros – Defeat of the Guerrillas – An Attempted Fraud", The New York Times, 19 November 1862, accessed 22 February 2016
17. Chris Tabor, "Skirmish at Island Mound", Island Mound
18. Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site; Missouri Department of Natural Resources
19. Cornish, The Sable Arm, pp. 173–80.
20. Words of our Hero: Ulysses S. Grant, edited by Jeremiah Chaplin, Boston: D. Lothrop and Company, pp. 13–14.
21. Robertson, James I. Jr.; Pegram, Willuam (1990). "'The Boy Artillerist': Letters of Colonel William Pegram, C.S.A.". Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 98, no. 2 (The Trumpet Unblown: The Old Dominion in the Civil War). pp. 242–243.
22. Williams, George W., History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880: Negros as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens, vol. II, New York: G.P. Putnam Son's, 1883, pp. 351–52.
23. Congress of the Confederate States of America (April 15, 2014). "No. 5". Joint Resolution on the Subject of Retaliation. May 1, 1863. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
24. Republican Party (June 7, 1864). "Republican Party Platform of 1864". Archived from the original on April 21, 2015. [T]he Government owes to all men employed in its armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full protection of the laws of war—and that any violation of these laws, or of the usages of civilized nations in time of war, by the Rebels now in arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress.
25. Grant, Ulysses (1863). "Letter to Richard Taylor". Vicksburg. I feel no inclination to retaliate for the offences of irresponsible persons; but if it is the policy of any General intrusted with the command of troops to show no quarter, or to punish with death prisoners taken in battle, I will accept the issue. It may be you propose a different line of policy towards black troops, and officers commanding them, to that practiced towards white troops. So, I can assure you that these colored troops are regularly mustered into the service of the United States. The Government, and all officers under the Government, are bound to give the same protection to these troops that they do to any other troops.
26. 45th United States Colored Troops
27. Gladstone, William A., United States Colored Troops, p. 120
28. Schubert, Frank N. (1997). Black Valor: Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, 1870-1898. Scholarly Resources Inc. pp. 4-5.
29. "Wild West Western Facts, Buffalo Soldiers". The Wild West. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
30. Schubert, Frank N. (1997). Black Valor: Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, 1870-1898. Scholarly Resources Inc. pp. 2-4.
31. Hahn, Steven (2004). "The Greatest Slave Rebellion in Modern History: Southern Slaves in the American Civil War". southernspaces.org.
32. African American Civil War Memorial and Museum; organization website
33. "District of Columbia. Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln". loc.gov. 1863.
34. "African American Civil War Museum To Hold Grand Opening". WAMU.
35. memorial & Museum History". www.afroamcivilwar.org.
36. See film review by historian James M. McPherson, "The 'Glory' Story," The New Republic, January 8 & 15, 1990, pp. 22–27.
37. Richard Walter Thomas (January 1996). John H. Standfield II (ed.). Understanding interracial unity: a study of U.S. race relations. Sage series on race and ethnic relations. Vol. 16. Sage Publications. p. 31.

General references

·         Cornish, Dudley Taylor. The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army, 1861–1865. New York: W.W. Norton, 1965.
·         Dobak, William A. Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 2011.
·         Gladstone, William A. United States Colored Troops, 1863–1867. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1996.
·         Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. Army Life in a Black Regiment. Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1870.
·         Johnson, Jesse J. Black Armed Forces Officers 1736–1971. Hampton Publications, 1971.
·         Matthews, Harry Bradshaw, African American Freedom Journey in New York and Related Sites, 1823–1870: Freedom Knows No Color, Cherry Hill, NJ: Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers, 2008.
·         McPherson, James M., The Negro's Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted During the War for the Union. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965.
·         Schubert, Frank N. (1997). Black Valor: Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, 1870-1898. Scholarly Resources Inc.
·         Smith, John David, Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops (Southern Illinois University Press, 2013). 156 pp.
·         Williams, George W., A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1887.
·         Film review, James M. McPherson, "The 'Glory' Story," The New Republic, January 8 & 15, 1990, pp. 22–27